Wednesday, July 1, 2015

Just a quick update for those who want to informed. Kenny and I went for the works today: blood work, doctor visit, chemo. Dr. Schlabach is such a compassionate and loving person! He greeted me with a big hug and left me with a big hug! How could he have known I'm a hugger? Only God could have orchestrated that I have three Christian doctors for this journey. Each of my doctors has let me know they are Christians by things they say, not just alluding to the Bible or God, but mentioning them outright in comments meant to help me fight this fight and win this war! Which reminds me of my devotion today. I'm re-reading Jesus Today by Sarah Young. Excellent devotional for anyone. I remember when I started it thinking, "Well, I just don't know if this one is meant for me because it sounds like this was written for someone with a dire illness or something." Hah! Who could have known, but our precious loving God! So, having just finished the final devotion Monday, I turned right back to the first devotion and started all over again. In today's reading, Jesus points out that the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me, and/or to you, is that He would stop loving me. He continues to point out that since that's not even within the realm of possibility, I can relax and live each day even more abundantly knowing that whatever comes my way, I win!!!! Even if, and eventually one day, I die, even that will be a blessing because I will be immediately with Him! So you see, no matter what a day brings to us, we are ultimately the receivers of the greatest blessing: in His presence! By the way, Sarah Young did indeed write this devotional over the course of three years while fighting debilitating illness. How God has used her illness and her writing! Amazing!

"Neither height nor depth, or anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Rom. 8:39

Praises!!!! Praises!!! And as the song we sang Sunday says, "How can it be?!" But it is! He has promised and He will not fail to deliver in His time. What a blessed comfort to know this.So, with all that in mind, back to the doctor and chemo report. My blood work numbers looked really good. To quote one of the nurses, "Those numbers look like a normal person." That's very good news. So that Newlasta (sp?) shot I got really worked! Worth every little bit of resulting pain (and there wasn't much - which is wonderful because Dr. Schlabach said some people REALLY HURT after that shot). Then to the doc for an examination of the tumor. He had a hard time finding it!!! It's shrunk again!!! So today he said the chemo is definitely working. Praise God!!! I am totally amazed!

On a not so positive note, I've been having some serious stabbing pains just below my right ribs. When I told Dr. Schlabach about them, I mentioned that my mom thought it was my gall bladder. Congratulations, Mama! You nailed it! The doc said he agrees with my mom. It has to be my gall bladder. Then when he asked what I had eaten, it became all too obvious. It was really funny. I told him pizza one night, barbeque the next. He laughed and said, "Well, at least it wasn't fried chicken!" Me and Kenny burst out laughing because a week ago, the first time I had the pains, we were loving us some home-fried chicken!!!!!! Looks like I'm in for some serious diet makeover. Then to chemo, where they took some blood directly from my port to run some extensive blood work (more so than the weekly finger-stick). This time, some questions. Have I not been drinking lots of liquids? My kidney function wasn't looking right. I am totally ignorant of the numbers and their meanings, but my production of ________?????? was on the low end of high and was significantly higher than my beginning level. So, I MUST force liquids. Yuck. But I must. God will help me.Y'all please pray for me to force liquids and be able to stomach healthier food. Right now I couldn't eat a salad if I had to. However, I could eat more vegetables and they are abundant right now. In fact I had squash, zuchini and tomato pie for dinner last night. Now that sounds healthy to me!The chemo went well. Since we were at Gunbarrel rather than downtown, and it was only Day 2 at this new location for the staff, I met another new nurse. Please pray that God will show me how to witness to her. I asked enough to be sure she does not know Jesus. However, the other nurse who helped me was wearing a beautiful cross necklace. When I complimented her, she said, "Thanks. It helps me remember why I'm here." Ahhhh! and there is was. A fellow Christian to help me witness to the other. If I follow the pattern established by the first two chemo visits, I will be sound asleep this time tomorrow. So you won't be hearing from me until Sunday, when I will groggily emerge from my drug-induced slumbers.Two weeks ago tomorrow, little Ty was having open-heart surgery. You should see him now! He's home and thriving and doing what any little three-month-old baby should be doing! Check out Meagan's blog to see good pics.

http://meaganslens.blogspot.com/

So much to be thankful for and praise God for!Love y'all. Happy July 4th!! God help our country.